Grace Elliott is not a courtesan memoirist in the usual sense, since her one surviving work, her published journal, is silent on the topic of her love-affairs. It covers exclusively her experience, mostly in Paris, from the early days of the French Revolution through to the Terror (which she barely survived). Her text, not published till a generation after her death, is a mix of history, heroicised autobiography and biographical sketches, and highly personalised political commentary.

Milestones

Probably later 1754 Grissel Dalrymple (later GE) was born in Edinburgh, supposedly at her grandparents' house, the youngest of four in her family.

Probably 1802 GE's posthumous editor says that Elliott was moved to begin writing down her memories of the French Revolution, at Twickenham in Middlesex, after returning from France on the signing of the Treaty of Amiens.